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| The Boston court is the first to rule against the benefits clause of the Defense of Marriage Act |
A US
appeals court has ruled key parts of a federal law denying benefits to same-sex
couples are unconstitutional.
A
three-judge panel in Boston, Massachusetts, unanimously said the 1996 Defense
of Marriage Act (Doma) discriminated against gay couples.
Under the
act, legally married gay couples are denied benefits, including the ability to
file joint tax returns.
The US
Supreme Court must now decide the matter, since only it can rule if Congress'
laws are constitutional.
The court
did not rule on whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
The 1st
Circuit appeals court agreed with a lower court's ruling that the federal law
interfered with the states' right to define marriage.
Thursday's
decision applies only to states within the circuit: Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Maine and New Hampshire and Puerto Rico.
It is the
first federal appeals court to find the section of the law relating to federal
tax, health and pension benefits unconstitutional.
"One
virtue of federalism is that it permits this diversity of governance based on
local choice, but this applies as well to the states that have chosen to
legalize same-sex marriage," Judge Michael Boudin wrote.
"Under
current Supreme Court authority, Congress' denial of federal benefits to
same-sex couples lawfully married in Massachusetts has not been adequately
supported by any permissible federal interest."
Doma -
enacted in 1996 during the Clinton administration - defines marriage for
federal purposes as a union exclusively between a man and a woman.
President
Barack Obama said last year that the Department of Justice would no longer
defend the Doma.
Gay
marriage is legal in eight US states and the District of Columbia. In
May, Mr Obama endorsed gay marriage.
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